Ass: Barcelona applies for the first away game of the Champions League, and wins additional two weeks to transform the new stadium

Western media Ass reported that Barcelona requested UEFA to arrange a first-round away game in the Champions League to gain an additional two weeks for the transformation of the new stadium.

Barcelona remains firmly hopes to start the season at the new Camp Nou Stadium. Although it is not possible to obtain permission to hold the Gambel Cup at home by August 10, this has not shaken the plans originally formulated by Laporta. He reiterated in an interview that all home games this season will be played at Camp Nou, completely ruled out the possibility of returning to Montsic.

Laporta revealed that the club has officially applied to UEFA to request the first round of the Champions League to be a away game, with the goal of winning an additional two weeks for the transformation of the new stadium. It should be pointed out that Barcelona has successfully obtained La Liga permission and arranged the first three rounds of the league (versus Mallorca, Levante and Vallecano) as away games. Therefore, they will all play away before facing Valencia.

However, UEFA's regulations are much stricter, and the first phase of the group stage must be played on the same stadium. This means that if Barcelona fails to complete the stadium renovation before the second round (home) game in time, they will be forced to play the Champions League at Montsic Stadium at least until February next year.

In response, Laporta flatly refused: "We will never consider returning to Montsic. All the budgets we have set for next season, and all the commitments we have reached with our sponsors, are based on the premise of returning to the Spotify Camp Nou this season. If the plan changes, we will have to overturn and start over, which is impossible at present."

In addition, the Barcelona senior executive firmly believes that UEFA will approve its application and said he has restored "the trust relationship with Chairman Cheferin", so he is confident that Barcelona's request will be respected on the day of the draw on August 28.

Therefore, despite not obtaining permission from the city to open the stadium on August 10, Barcelona still hopes to start the season at the new stadium. "We are working hand in hand with the city to overcome obstacles one by one." However, the issue of fines for delayed engineering appears to be deadlocked.

Laporta said: "We express our understanding that our goal is to complete the project, not to pay the fine."